By Kabiru Dogon Daji
Birnin Kebbi
Determined to save lives of women and children, Kebbi state government, in partnership with UNICEF, has set up an emergency transport scheme for conveyance of pregnant women and children to hospitals and primary health care facilities in the 21 local government areas of the state.
At the flag-off of the scheme at the EU Prime office in Birnin Kebbi, yesterday, UNICEF donated health facilities, including drugs to the state government in order to facilitate the programme.
In his speech, the Commissioner for Health, Alhaji Usman Kambaza, said the emergency transport scheme was conceived to check the delay in reaching health facilities, especially in hard-to-reach areas as well as mountainous terrain and riverine areas of the state.
“It is worthy to note that out of 4000 settlements in Kebbi, 55 per cent are hard to reach, based on location in riverine, mountainous, sandy or presence of gullies,” Kambaza added.
According to him, the emergency transport scheme was a public private partnership with the National Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW) , Ministry of Health, State Primary Healthcare Development Agency, Ministry of Women Affairs , Federal Roads Safety Commission ( FRSC) , State Inspection Vehicle Division (VIO), and the Nigeria Police.
He said, each of the 225 wards with primary healthcare facilities and designated referral hospitals in the state, would benefit from the disbursement of the drugs and commodities donated by UNICEF.
Earlier, in his speech, the UNICEF chief in charge of Sokoto office, Muhammad Muhiddin, said out of the 500 million euros set for Sokoto, Kebbi and Zamfara states, Kebbi got the highest amount of N4bn to strengthen its healthcare system, especially on women
